Fairytale
by Pentagon Hexagon
Summary: One wish went on the Castle. Number two was spent on the status as Queen-Queen Joy of Sibuna. Three gave her her True Love and the last wish went on his heart. But as the Rebellion forms, who will save him?
1. Cinder Nina

Cinder Nina

Hair swept into a cap of cotton rags and dress matted with the fresh, slowly drying dirt, Nina wished for a better life. Every ounce of her strength was spent scrubbing, washing, polishing, mending and cooking for her three sisters. She knew she'd never have a chance-her destiny, decided by the imperious and mysterious Sir Knight was final. Anyone who broke that half sacred word was banished: kicked out of Sibuna and into the deserted marshlands beyond. Well, that's what her sisters said. They'd scared her, when she was younger, with stories about him, set just before Nina had turned four. The King's name at the time had been King Eddie the Dramatic and he'd been a wise and fair leader, until one day, Sir Knight had come to town as a beggar, with fake scars and a deformed face. No one had known his real name at all-no one dared to guess it. King Eddie had scorned his appearance…and the next night, the King had become a beast and his six sons had been turned to swans and his only daughter vanished. The cruel ruler now, Queen Joy, had not failed to stop her breaking the curse-she'd sent a pack of wild dogs and griffins after the swans and they hadn't made it out alive.

Sir Knight had brought Queen Joy to Sibuna. That was obvious.

But Nina daydreamed her work away wondering just who the mysterious and frankly evil Sir Knight was, or if the Swans had been pretty and worn crowns atop their snow-white heads, and how the daughter of King Eddie had tried to break the curse, or if she was still alive, or had even been turned into a swan herself.

She longed for a fairytale ending of her own: denying all thoughts of obeying such a cruel man as Sir Knight in favour of a happy ending with her own Prince.


	2. Mick and Mara Charming

Mick Charming

It was Night when he picked up the arrow shaft from the ground, praising his luck when it turned out to be a fully working arrow. It was fresh, maybe new. 'Look, Mara, we have a battle ground.'

Mara didn't speak, simply plucked the arrow from his hands and set it in his quiver. He knew she wouldn't have talked even if he'd tried. The Queen had done so much when she'd killed her brothers in cold cruelty: Mara would not speak until twelve years had passed, in repentance for not being able to save her brothers. It had only been eleven. What was more; she was cursed to be a Nightingale each day.

Hm, they'd been on the run for eleven years.

'Father!' his child ran up to him, a stocky, healthy lad of six. He and his sister had found five more. While both curses had passed onto his daughter, his son made up for her and his mother's silence all too easily.

'Well done, Lily, Jamie. Good work.' He smiled, noticing a broken off arrow head in his wife's hands. She held it up to the stars for them to see it better and they saw an inscription on the side, crudely drawn but easy to spot: 'J+F', it read.

'J and F?' Mick wondered. 'I wonder who it was meant for.'

Mara's eyes were sad-she'd already figured it out. Using the bottom of her makeshift bow-she'd had to leave her heavier, ornate palace bow behind- she cleared a space to write in the mud: 'Fabian'.

Ah, Fabian. Mara's best friend and stable hand when they'd been young. He'd led a quiet life, always starving really, and then one day he'd gone away and miraculously come back two years later as King of the Golden Mountain. He'd asked Mara to marry him, but she'd declined, back when she could talk. Mara drew the bow head through the mud like it troubled her. 'Joy' soon read right next to 'Fabian'.

The Queen. The Queen who had nearly had Mick burn Mara and who killed her brothers. She'd taken Mara's childhood friend.

'It's probably not them, Mum.' Jamie piped up, consolingly. 'I mean, how did the arrow shaft survive all that time? It's been eleven years. This thing is older than me!'

Mara's eyes met Mick's. 'Let's go before they follow us any further. Remember, she holds the Invisibility cloak.' He shifted. Already he could hear the distant clank of the Soldier's chainmail…his worst nightmare.

They flew into the distance. As Mick soared over a broken log, he wondered if his wife's friend, as much as Mara had written for him in their long days in a safe house while she was pregnant, was still alive, wherever he was.


	3. Patricia Belle

Patricia Belle

The talking china was all she had. Her father had abandoned her to the fate Sir Knight had planned. The first fate had been read for King Eddie and when he had tried to stop Knight, he'd been turned into nothing short of a beast. She'd been the second Fate: spend her life with him to keep him company. That had been twelve years ago, when she'd been three years of age. King Eddie really never spoke to her and when he did, it was at formal mealtimes and she simply scowled at his ugly face and wondered how to break out of the secure castle they lived in.

It was more like a Prison. With annoying, talking objects. The Candlestick, made by dwarves from a far off country (ok, really, really good Hammer Smiths) as a cool wedding present for King Eddie and his Queen, who'd run off when he'd turned into a beast, had turned out to be a cool Italian. The China had been more than happy to have a nice cosy chat-part of the Queen's new curse and also Sir Knight's own magic-but the Clock did her head in. He chimed when he didn't need to. He woke her up each morning early when all she wanted to do was sleep, and he made sure she was on time for every single thing. And sometimes, she didn't want to be.

Like those fancy feasts that the King tried to coax her to like him with.

The only thing that appeased her most was the dark, unlit cave like rooms of the North Wing and Tower. King Eddie lived in the South and she had the Ladies in Waiting bedrooms in the East, but the North Wing held the library, which added a spooky figure to the fact that it hadn't been used in ten years and had spiders and cobwebs all around. It was where she felt at home. It was here, incidentally, that she found the intruder.


	4. Amber White

Amber White

Her long white hair matched the roses, something she prided herself on as they grew each passing day. Her older sister, Rosie, had dark brown hair that went well with her own red roses, but it was no patch on matching. Amber White loved the way her mother had taught her how to carefully preserve all the roses. And now, at the start of winter, she was still staring at her long hair caressing the pale, silky petals.

Hearing a loud sigh, she looked away from her plants to the large bear by the fire, resting peacefully, and her older sister asleep on his back. Three winters ago, the bear had come looking for shelter, aided by his younger brother Alfie, who told them that the Queen had cursed them both: two Princes, one cursed a bear and one cursed to be a Fairy. Alfie granted any of their needs in reply for their shelter for his brother and they welcomed the much needed help. It was hard to live through winter in a cottage where snow fell down the chimney sometimes and there was no heat unless they gathered wood themselves. But they made it through.

The door opened with a small creak and Amber White turned her attention to the human sized boy that had just appeared: Alfie himself, disguised as human. She knew better than to hug him because underneath the illusion, he was just ten centimetres tall and very easy to hurt. 'Hey, everyone…I need help.'

'What's wrong, Alfie?' She asked, hurrying up to him. 'What do you need?'

'I know what the cure is.' He took a deep breath. 'There are rumours circling around the forest. One thing that can cure all the Fates…its Queen Joy's blood. If we drink it, we break the curse.' He sounded so sure of himself.

'And how do we kill the Queen?' Rosie shuddered. 'Although she is evil, there is no way any of us can get close enough to take off her head without alerting all her guards to kill us. Or her black hearted husband.'

'Shush!' Alfie cried. 'She has the invisibility cloak! She can hear us if she wants to!' he cried.

'I will stay with your brother.' Amber White's mother promised. 'And someone needs to tend the Rose bushes.'

'I shall stay help, mother.' Rosie told her, taking her hand. All four looked at Amber White: the Fairy, the bear and her relations, all with mixed feelings as to whether she should stay or go.

'I would lover to go with you. Can you turn me into a fairy?' she smiled her prettiest. 'Please?'

Alf smiled so wide that his grin surpassed his face. With a few seconds of time, he transformed Amber White into a beautifully dressed fairy, with gossamer wings and even longer, prettier curly hair. She was adorned in two large, white petals, for now she was about as tall as a daisy. 'I'll be back!' she cried as Alfie took her hand and they drifted across the velvet night sky, over the forest and away from Amber's childhood home...into adventure.


	5. Mick and Mara

Mick Charming

As we ran, he noticed two shining lights above us in the dawning light: Fairies. They were pure, good ones, because of their white hue, so we stopped and they settled on Mara and Lily contentedly. The soldier's march was halted for the night.

'Alf.' He acknowledged as they 'grew' to Human form and we found seats on the mossy floor. He'd found a very lovely Fey girl to fly with. Her hair shined like moonlight. 'Where are you off to in such a hurry mate?'

'To the Queen. One drop of her blood and me and my brother's curse can be broken.' He announced solemnly.

'Five years, right?' Mick smiled at them. 'Seems so long. Our eleven years in the wilderness seems like two minutes.'

'Gosh, is that Lily and Jamie? Last time I saw you two,' he ruffled their heads, 'you were babes.'

'They are cute.' The girl next to him agreed. 'I'm Amber White, by the way.'

'Mick Charming's my name.' He nodded. 'That's Mara, my wife, and Lily, my daughter. They don't speak, you know, and this is little Jamie. He doesn't stop.'

'Eleven years ago, Sir Knight turned up at Mara's dad's castle and bewitched her brothers. The Queen killed them before she could break it and Mara's been struck dumb ever since.' Alf explained to her.

'Eleven years? Harsh!' she cried. 'I wouldn't have survived.'

'The Queen's blood?' He questioned them suddenly. 'That's a hard task.'

'Yes. I'm gathering help. I've got a maid up near the castle that'll most likely help. She's well into things like this.'

'What about Sir Knight?' Jamie asked.

'He's gone missing. Rumour has it that she's killed him, better luck.' Alf replied. 'We must be off. At midnight, the maid turns into a pumpkin…or something like that. Come on, AW.'

'AW? Seriously?' she complained, turning to fairy form.

'Wait, Alf, let us come with you.' Mick said suddenly, catching his wife's hand. 'Killing the Queen might be the undoing of Mara's curse too.'

Alfie regarded us with bright, twinkling eyes and nodded. 'Head to the Fairy ring on the outskirts of the Forest. I'll catch up with you as soon as I've found that daydream maid. Beware the Invisibility Curse.'

With that, they departed-two single beams of light like twin moons, into the horizon. He hoped they wouldn't get caught.

And when the moon turned to sun and Mara and Lily became the beautiful Nightingales, he really hoped that by killing the Queen, they'd be no longer jinxed to wear wings when the sun's rays shined down on them. That he'd feel Mara's lips on his in the sunshine once again. Someday soon.


	6. Queen Joy

Queen Joy

The castle was large and beautiful. It suited the Queen easily and the courtiers that came with it were even nicer. She'd only been there eleven years when her old friend, Sir Knight, arrived back from wherever was keeping him. Sir Knight had been the one to drive away the stupid King, and they'd put together a deal, a contract, so to speak, which was magical and unbreakable. Although the Queen didn't know that. She leant on the Balcony wall and gazed at her Kingdom. The one she and Sir Knight ruled. And her true love.

To Queen Joy, Sir Knight was a trickster, not a do-gooder. He spoke flippantly and mostly disobeyed her and had for the last eleven years they'd been bound by the contract. He could spin lies like gold and seemed to harbour a great passion for taking away the first born of his contract men or women. With them, he simply gave the child to another and made sure they lived hard and upsetting lives.

The Queen had struck four bargains with him.

One: the Castle. Two: the Status of Queen. Three: her true love. Four: his heart.

He'd granted each and every one of them, though in return she had given nothing. That's why she thought about him now. She hadn't seen him in a long time and expected his demands soon enough. She'd made a fortune of gold-taken from her husband's stock.

She had magical gifts, such as the Cloak of Invisibility, the Boots that walked you anywhere and a special sword that would swipe off your enemies' heads but never yours. She loved them-her self proclaimed gifts from her true love-and hardly took them off. That was why the fierce winds seemed to pass by her: the moon forgot to shine on her; hills seemed to disappear.

As she turned to look inside, to her true love, she missed the two shining lights that settled behind a house-having flitted from her forests-and go inside.

Her true love was sitting silently, miserably, on the throne she had constructed for him. Anger briefly moved in her heart-why did he not appreciate the wondrous beauty around him?-and she remembered.

He didn't have his heart anymore. It was gone, safely tucked into a chest of pure bronze, his greatest enemy, in the Queen's chambers. As he turned to look at her, his face still and emotionless, his hand traced desperately under his sash, where she knew the great, gaping hole lay.

'Love conquers all' had not conquered a man without emotion. She loved a heartless man, yet he was not cruel, not unkind. He did not hate her. That was the fourth wish: his heart. Sir Knight had cut it out and placed it in that box, misreading the Queen's intentions. And now she had to live with him, because Sir Knight had long since disappeared.

'Waiting for me?' Croaked a voice. She turned back to the balcony, where perched a raven. One of Sir Knight's many forms, she mused. 'I think it is time. Let us talk.'


End file.
